Sermon Tone Analysis

Opening

Opening

At the beginning of this series: “A Journey with Job”

We are faced with so many questions such as:

Why do we have to suffer?

How are we going to react to sufferings?

When you suffer, do you imagine that God has found fault with you?

Do you ever wonder why your faithfulness to God doesn’t eliminate the suffering in your life?

Do you ever wonder why your faithfulness to God doesn’t eliminate the suffering in your life?

Like Job, millions of people along with the 17 families in Parkland, Florida are facing similar questions in their hearts and minds

(show images of mass shooting victims)

Last Tuesday, February 14, Valentine’s Day, 17 people lost their lives in the hands of the suspect, Nikolas Cruz, a 19 year old former student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the same school where he indiscriminately opened fire at literally anyone

Nikolas who is now in custody, admitted to the crime, and plans to plead guilty if the “death penalty” will be off the table

I read an article about the 17 victims, and every sentence, every word are truly heartbreaking

I cannot help but imagine what’s going on in the mind and hearts of the families of the victims

I am pretty sure that they too, like job has so many questions that remained unanswered

BREATHE!

After Job lost all his children, his health and wealth, he remained faithful to God

We learned in the life of Job how to recognize that everything and everyone belongs to God

That we came naked through our mothers’ womb, and naked we shall depart

That the Lord giveth and He also taketh

Job rebuked his wife and said that we must not only accept what is good from the Lord, but to accept even those things we describe as “bad”

BREATHE!

Do you ever wonder why your faithfulness to God doesn’t eliminate the suffering in your life?

Do you ever wonder why your faithfulness to God doesn’t eliminate the suffering in your life?

When Job’s Life Group, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar came to comfort Job, no one said a word for seven days

They all wondered of Job’s extreme suffering, they know Job is righteous and faithful to the Lord

And in chapters 4 through 37, there was cycles of speeches between Job and his friends

There were going back and forth, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar taking turns expressing their theological school of thoughts

They offered their wisdom trying to answer questions that grips not just Job, but also themselves

The gist of their very long conversation is that:

No one is innocent before God, and Job should appeal to God for help

Life calamities must be the result of Job’s sin, though we know from the beginning of the book that he was ruined for no reason ()

Job turned the tables on his friends, who have become his enemies

Job agrees that his affliction is from God, but he is also at a loss as to “why?”

BREATHE!

BREATHE!

The answers to the questions on why and how, are very elusive

Why does these have to happen to me?

How could these be?

It requires wisdom to answer these ambivalent questions

Wisdom that are not found in humans, not from friends or Life Groups

But wisdom that comes from God

Because God is the ultimate source of wisdom

BREATHE!

Wisdom is applied knowledge

It is the ability to take the truth of God and make it practical for our daily lives

As you open your Bible in our text for today, let me give you a summary of the whole 28th chapter of the book of Job

Text: Where Wisdom is Found

In verses 1-11, the author (not Job or his friends), poetically used great lengths that people go when searching for gold and other valuable resources, to illustrate how far people would go with their search for answers

People willingly endure to search great distances with their quest for valuable stones, so with their quest for wisdom and answers to their questions

It then turns to to show the great value of wisdom in verses 12-22

That wisdom is far more precious than gold

In verse 12 of our text today, the author asked..

JOb 28:12

He asked where wisdom could be found

And in verse 20, he repeated the same question, but modified it slightly..

This time the author is asking where wisdom originates

In verse 23 Job finally answers the questions..

God alone is the source of all wisdom

Job understands how to find wisdom, and he know its origin

In conclusion from all these..

The person who searches for wisdom will develop a fear of God

Since wisdom cannot be found apart from God

The wise seeker will adopt an attitude of trust and obedience to God

BREATHE!

Let’s not waste our suffering by turning away from God and His purposes

While we cannot avoid suffering in this life, we can choose to respond wisely

“Suffering wisely” involves understanding that trials have the capacity to spark a powerful chain reaction in our lives

BREATHE!

Our church family has its own suffering to endure

We were only given until next Sunday the 25th to meet in this place

We were just like the Israelites when they wandered in the wilderness

They were always on the move

No permanent place, only a promised destination

BREATHE!

Their journey, and so with ours, is the Lord’ way to teach us to respond wisely to every suffering that we endure

From Egypt that represents slavery to sin, God led them over through the Red Sea

In every step of the way God was with them despite their groaning and bickering

They always complained from God and conflict with their fellow Israelites

And because of that, the journey that could have only lasted for 40 days, took them 40 years

BREATHE!

Not everyone was able to cross the River Jordan, a lot of them died in the wilderness

In our journey here in Agape, my hope and prayers is for all of us to cross our River Jordan, and that no one will be left behind

BREATHE!

In the second year of King Darius, 520 BC, ruler of the Persian Empire

The word of the Lord came through prophet Haggai

BREATHE!

The Lord has made Himself clear through His words through Haggai

That we invested in so many things, things that doesn’t truly matters

“Suffering wisely” involves understanding that trials have the capacity to spark a powerful chain reaction in our lives:

We invested on stocks, our own homes, business, jobs and career while we let the house of the Lord remain in ruins

Yes, we, His people are His church, however, His church also needs its house

Jesus Christ said, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also ()

BREATHE!

I would like to propose that we start to build a fund for the Lord’s house

Aside from what we already committed to give to the Lord, let’s give some more, because this is what is right

Because it is the right thing to do

Let’s give more of our treasure to build up this funds

Let’s give more of our time and talent to build a team of happy volunteers serving God